The Marais neighborhood of Paris is filled with shops that are chic or shabby and everything in between. Toward the southern end of the Marais is Saint-Paul Antiques Village, a cluster of shops and ateliers. You’ll know you’re in the right vicinity when you see…
Paris abounds with antiques and vintage items. Serious buyers can easily spend days if not weeks hopping from one antiques shop to another and still not hit them all. But what if you are interested in scouting for antiques but don’t want to hike a…
Songs proclaim it, movies portray it, and myths perpetuate it. As much as the phrase seems like a cliché, springtime in Paris is indeed a special time in a unique place. Paris food markets celebrate the season as outdoor stalls overflow with thick asparagus, tangled…
What is black and white and coveted all over? Yes, truffles. Recently I had an opportunity to visit a truffle market in the south of France. I had heard about French truffle markets from several people. My friend Caroline, who grew up near the Rhône Valley…
I can’t help but peer at my feet when I shop at street markets in Paris. I imagine generations of shoppers who have stepped on the same well-worn cobblestones. I conjure up women swishing by in long dresses and men in buttoned-up shoes. The imaginary…
The first time I strolled rue Cadet market street in Paris, I couldn’t get beyond the noise and dust of nearby construction. I’ve returned several times since that gritty introduction and, even though construction sites still lurk nearby, I’ve come to enjoy this very typical…
The writer Mavis Gallant died last week in Paris at age 91. She published novels and a smattering of nonfiction but kept returning to short stories as her favored form for an outpouring of tales. She published a whopping 116 stories in the pages of The New…
I hadn’t thought that this high temple of food in Paris, otherwise known as La Grande Épicerie, needed any sprucing up. But it has undergone a major redo. After 18 months of renovation, the new look was unveiled this past December. In January I went…
Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Patricia Wells and Ann Mah which was hosted at The American Library in Paris this week. It was a fascinating conversation where they interviewed each other and then entertained questions from the audience….
